Beaver Lake: June 2012

 I haven’t been out to Beaver Lake since last August and have been feeling the need to revisit this relatively large prairie lake on the edge of Humboldt.  The forecast issued last night for today indicated sunny skies, cool temperatures, and very mild winds.

So, this morning after my routine stop for a bagel, coffee, and an hour reading time, I headed west on Interstate 90 toward Humboldt and Beaver Lake.  These prairie lakes are not easy to find; the signage isn’t great and there are few landmarks to point the way.  They seem to be secluded spots for those “in the know.” 

Much to my surprise, there were two vehicles and trailers in the parking area by the launching ramp.  I passed close alongside one of the boats with two guys fishing just offshore of the island.  One guy aboard told me that they were hoping for perch but had caught only bullheads so far.

Beaver Lake is about 300 acres in area, perhaps three times as large as Lake Alvin.  The lake is relatively open to wind, and I often find a strong breeze out of the west blowing across the mile-wide east/west axis.  When I arrived at 7:30 this morning, the wind was light, but there still was a chop sweeping out of the west strong enough to break on the bow of my kayak.  Unusually, it seems to me, the wind actually diminished over the course of the morning.  In the lee of the island, the water was flat calm for most of the time that I was on the lake today.

As usual, I first headed north to the island.  Kayaking around this large island is always a treat to me.  It is heavily wooded and full of bird life. While I heard a steady cacophony of birdcalls from within the island, there were few large birds visible today from the water.  I did see a few egrets, but they were high over the trees and I was unable to get close to them.

From the island, again my routine cruise, I headed over to a passage along the northeastern side that leads into a slough including a pond that is generally full of beaver lodges and many types of shore birds.  The landmark for this passage is an old windmill looming above the trees just inland of the lake shore.  

The water depth seems down a couple of feet.  My way into the slough was gradually restricted from shallow water and heavy marine growth.  Finally, I was unable to proceed further and could not reach the pond.  My paddle sunk a couple of feet into the muck, and I realized the mess I could have experienced if it were necessary to get out of the kayak.

Backing out and turning back, I proceeded down to the far northern shore where another slough normally leads west inland a couple hundred yards. This passageway was totally dry, no hint of any water route inland.

I headed back south and crossed over to the northeastern shoreline.  The wind had dropped as I headed back toward the island and along the shore.  With decreased water depth, there was a beach line along much of the shore.  I pulled my kayak up onto the sand and strolled along the beach, looking at the tracks of critters in the soft sand and mud.

My cruise this morning lasted a little over and hour and a half.  It was disappointing not to able to enter the sloughs to check out the wildlife, especially birds.  The island is always a treat, but again there was not much shorebird life visible from the boat today. Most of the shoreline opens into pasture or grassland, the tree cover is spotty except on the island.

For more information from past cruises to Beaver Lake, check out the narratives under that keyword on the “area waterways” list on the right side of the blog.   For a complete set of the photographs of the cruise today, refer to my Flickr account at the following: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayheath/sets/72157630051200287/

Beaver Lake - August 2011

The forecast yesterday for this morning seemed the best this week for kayaking: light winds, sunny, no rain. So, to lock in my intentions, I loaded up the kayak on the car last night so that I might make a quick getaway after my bagel, coffee, and hour-long read at my routine morning spot.

I wanted to revisit Beaver Lake, a body of water that I last paddled in May, just as the area was experiencing the arrival of spring. Beaver Lake is about 25 miles from my eastside Sioux Falls home and an easy drive out on Interstate 90 to Humboldt. The lake is about 300 acres, roughly three times the size of Lake Alvin. As I arrived in Humboldt this morning looking for the gas station that marks the road leading past the cemetery and the back of the elementary school and on to the lakeshore, I thought about how hard it would be for someone to actually locate the lake. Signage is not a strength here in South Dakota, especially when searching for a lake. There is nothing indicating a lake or launching area until passing an obscure small sign covered in weeds, and there is almost never a sign providing a name for a lake. Perhaps this is to keep such locations nearly private, only accessible to those in the know. Specific driving directions from Sioux Falls are provided on earlier narratives located in the area waterways inventory on the right side of this blog.

The launch area is quite nice and has a ramp, dock, ample parking, and a vault toilet. There was no one about, neither on the shore nor on the water; I was completely alone for my cruise.

I launched my kayak at 7:45 a.m. into mirror calm waters. This lake can be quite a challenge when there is a stiff wind, but today it was just beautiful. I rushed through my readiness steps so that I could get underway before a wind arose to shatter the reflective surface.

My usual route on Beaver Lake is to take off from the launching area on the southern end of the lake and head out to the island directly in front of the ramp. The island is heavily wooded with a varied shoreline. The southwestern side has high cut banks, perhaps up to 20 feet in height, while the eastern and northern shoreline is gently shelving into a thickly wooded interior.

The island is a bird paradise. I have seen great blue heron, egrets, owls, geese, ducks, and a great variety of perching birds. There does not seem to be any clear path into the interior of the island. I suppose that there is some animal life that either swims to the island or is stranded after crossing during the winter, although I have seen only squirrels.

As nearly always, I paddled out to the island and went right around the eastern shore to the north and entered the northeastern arm of the lake. Keeping to the right side, I paddled close along the shore until I came to the channel, marked by an old windmill, leading south about 1,000 feet into a large marshy pool.

This pool is deep in the marsh and bordered by tall rushes and cattails. There are beaver lodges aplenty throughout the channel and the pool. Also, this is a nesting area for a great variety of waterfowl and perching birds.

I like to ground my kayak among the rushes and sit quietly watching the reappearance of birds that took flight initially upon my arrival.

Sitting there in the pool is a great vantage point for observing the life of this secluded spot.

Even though the lake has lost some depth at this point in the summer, there was plenty of water to float my kayak anywhere I wanted to go.

After my cruise through that channel and into the pool, I reentered the eastern arm of the lake and continued east to the end. On the north side of the very end of this arm, there is another channel that flows northeast and allows passage for about 800 feet through the marsh and rushes. As always, I continued up this channel until my forward progress was halted by a single-wire fence. This channel was pretty shallow with depth ranging from just a few inches to perhaps one or two feet. As I thrust my paddle down, it sank into about a foot of muck. I did not want to be in a situation where I had to get out of a grounded kayak and find myself flailing around in muck that reached my knees. But, this did not happen, and I continued as usual until I reached the wire.

Coming back, I returned to the island and continued around the remaining shoreline, peering into the interior and impressed by the constant cacophony of bird calls – calls from unseen birds deep in the woods.

I was out for about two hours this morning. While I was out, the mirror calm was replaced by a surface sculpted into wavelets from a developing light breeze. Again, the inescapable lesson of lake cruising in South Dakota: go paddling early!

Beaver Lake is a very nice spot for varied landscape and bird watching. As the reader might review in earlier narratives (see the inventory of specific paddling areas on the right side of the blog), this is also a lake that can become dangerous when the wind rises. I have a paddling colleague who goes out to Beaver Lake during windy conditions specifically to ride the waves, but I prefer a calm water surface, especially when out alone. My tip-off for going to Beaver Lake is a forecast that calls for winds from 5-15 mph, and then I go early to take advantage of the calmest part of the day.

Beaver Lake - May 2011

After a string of cool, rainy, and windy days, the Sioux Falls area is slated for about three days of sun with temperatures up into the high 60s. I could not let the opportunity for a peaceful cruise on an area lake pass, so this morning I headed out early to Beaver Lake, just on the southern edge of Humboldt and within sight of Interstate 90.

The road to the lake access area runs along the edge of the cemetery and just west of the Humboldt elementary school. Today, the road was pretty rough with lots of potholes. Approaching the southern edge of I90, the road turns east and winds along the edge of the lake. The entrance into the public access area has a small and easy to miss sign. For most of these “out of the way” lakes, the state does not expend many resources to guide the traveler to public access areas. It is essential to have a detailed map or set of directions.

The temperature as I arrived at the lake was in the high 30s, the sky was cloudless, and there was a light to moderate wind blowing out of the north; as usual, the lake was deserted. I could hardly wait to unload my kayak and set off.

I followed my normal Beaver Lake cruise route and headed first out to the island located offshore, just northeast of the access point. This large island is a favorite of mine; it seems like a bird sanctuary, and today it was populated by flocks of blackbirds with the occasional egret flying overhead. I circumnavigated the island, peering into the interior looking at the vegetation that is in its early spring growth, listening to the cacophony of bird sounds, and searching for “critters.” As I paddled around the island shoreline, I could hear duck and geese sounds from the grasses and reeds just into the interior.

From the island, again following my usual route, I continued east into the rising sun and headed north along the shoreline into the large northern appendage of the lake. My landmark along this route is an old windmill along the eastern shore that marks an entrance to a wetlands, a place full of beaver lodges, tall grasses and reeds, and a nesting place for a variety of perching birds and waterfowl. This is a tranquil spot, regardless of the windy conditions that so often characterize this wide and open lake.

After cruising around the pool that marks the end of the wetlands channel, I headed back to the main body of the lake and continued down the northeastern arm to another entrance into a wetlands, this time moving northwest. This channel leads inland about 200 yards or so past more beaver lodges and tall grasses.

I love these wetlands with their channels and wider ponds. This is where the cattails grow, the beaver build their lodges, and the mama ducks teach their babies how to stay away from the man in the red kayak. There were lots of yellow-headed blackbirds perching on the reeds along my transit down the channels.

My return path led me back along the southern shoreline toward the island. As I reached the far eastern shore, a few hundred yards from the island, I spotted another red kayak. In my eight previous cruises on Beaver Lake, I have never seen another kayak or canoe. I could not resist heading over to chat with the paddler, a woman bundled up in a lightweight parka who lives in the area and frequently kayaks the lake; in fact, she told me that she thought of this as “her pond.”

In rather typical fashion, the wind had freshened since I arrived and the light winds became decidedly moderate with temperatures up to the mid 50s.

As I finished up my cruise and headed to the access area, I saw that an older gent had arrived and had his fishing equipment spread out at the end of the dock. We chatted a bit and I loaded up my kayak. My cruise this morning was about 90 minutes.

Beaver Lake, A Fall Cruise: October 2010

I was traveling overseas during the last part of September and have not been out on the water for the past two and a-half weeks. We have a guest visiting here now from California, and today I took him kayaking on Beaver Lake (see past Beaver Lake narratives on the menu at the right side of the blog home page.).

We got a late start this morning and arrived at Beaver Lake about 10:30 or so. There were a few other people on the lake today, mostly retired type gents out fishing in boats or from the dock. There was very light wind when we started, and that wind just diminished as the morning wore on. The temperature was in the 70s and the sky was clear: a beautiful fall day in South Dakota.

My friend, Bill, used my 13-foot Dagger, and I took the Folbot. We set out from the ramp at the public access area and headed out toward the island. I had hoped to see a variety of waterfowl, as I normally do; today, though, there were no birds visible on the island. We cruised along the shoreline looking into the island through the trees and bushes. Fall is in full form by now, and lots of the trees and bushes are changing colors, some are already bare and getting ready for the long winter months. Today, though, was almost a step back into summer. The water got calmer and more reflective as the morning moved on.

Nearly always my next stop along the Beaver Lake cruise is around the island, along the shoreline to an entrance through the reeds to a wonderful wetlands made up of a channel leading into a large pool hidden away from the lakeshore. The landmark for this channel entrance is an old windmill just inshore but easily visible from the lake.

In this channel and in the pool are a number of large beaver lodges that seem to have been freshly rebuilt for the coming winter. The last time I came up this pathway, there were a couple dozen egrets nesting. Today, the egrets were not visible; perhaps they have left for a land with a gentler winter. Instead, we saw perhaps ten beaver lodges.

I find great tranquility moving slowly and silently through these waters looking at the wetlands community of cattails, lodges, and usually a large number of waterfowl.

We then moved to the northwest corner of the lake and into a wetlands area that I had not seen before. Maybe the high water level has created this new opportunity; today it was another entrance into a channel that runs west into the reeds for a few hundred yards.

This is the spot on the trip where we at last ran into substantial numbers of waterfowl and perching birds. I also saw a beaver swimming down the channel towards me, but I was unable to get my camera ready before he submerged. We continued until stopped by a barbed wire fence across the channel.

After spending an hour and a-half or so paddling, we headed back to the dock. It was a really fine day to spend in South Dakota. Some people consider Beaver Lake as one of the best paddling areas in the area. I also really like this waterway, but about half of my experiences on this lake have been in quite windy conditions. When the winds are calm, I love Beaver Lake, especially for the bird life along the island and into the wetlands. When there is a wind out of the west, though, this can be a difficult paddle through sometimes big waves, at least big waves from the perspective of a kayaker.

Beaver Lake - September 2010

About twice a year I head west out of Sioux Falls on Interstate 90 to visit Beaver Lake, located just on the edge of Humboldt, SD. My last visit there was in April, and the landscape was just “greening up” after a long winter. This morning I made my “bookend” visit to the lake – spring to see the arrival of the season and fall to see summer disappearing. After my customary morning stop at the local bagel spot for coffee, a bagel, and an hour with my novel, I departed Sioux Falls as the sun was coming up on a brisk 50-degree day. By 7:45 a.m., I was at the “put-in.” This was the first day since April that I wondered whether a jacket would be needed.

The forecast for the day spoke of “breezy” conditions, and that seemed okay; after all, a calm day in South Dakota is rare. As I drove west with my kayak atop the car, however, I saw the battery level for my hybrid Honda Civic dropping down to a single bar; without “electric assist,” the maximum speed for the car dropped to about 55 mph. Headwinds out of the west caused a depletion of battery power, and that was my first tip-off to probable wind conditions on Beaver Lake.

When I arrived at the lake, I saw that the wind was whipping down the length of the lake from west to east. Beaver Lake is 300 acres in surface area (more than three times the size of Lake Alvin) with large open space along the west to east axis. There is little cover on the western shore to break the wind, so it tends to generate significant wave action, especially on that west to east axis. The waves in the open part of the lake today were one to two feet from trough to breaking tops with whitecaps.

As usual, though, there was enough variance in the shoreline to provide areas of sheltered water, some areas of light wave action, and also areas of heavy waves that can create apprehension for the solo paddler.

I seem drawn to the large wooded island located about 300 yards out from the public access point on the southern shore. That channel between the mainland and the island is the first area of concern for a paddler on a windy day: the wind seems always to come out of the west on my visits to the island. The eastern and northern shores of the island are home to a variety of bird life and are also generally sheltered from prevailing winds. The island, therefore, is irresistible to most paddlers.

As I approached the island, bobbing about in the waves, I saw four egrets slipping away from me. They flew off to the north, but I knew that I would encounter them again.

Moving away from the lee of the island, I was once more into heavy wave action, and I struggled across the wind to the northern shore and then turned west into the wind as I headed to the northern bay and the entrance into a wetlands area.

This wetlands area is my favorite part of the lake. My landmark, as usual, was an old windmill along the eastern side of this northern bay of the lake. I slipped through the channel and moved east down a waterway through the aquatic growth and beaver lodges.

The elusive egrets from the island had joined a large flock of egrets within the wetlands; there were more than a dozen of them along the shoreline or perched in trees. Slowly, I approached the flock with my camera ready and managed to capture several photos before they all departed.

As I left the wetlands and headed back into the main body of the lake, the heavy wave action began again. Water was breaking over the bow of my kayak, and I had to concentrate upon my steering and paddling until I reached the eastern shore. From there, the waves seemed to decrease, probably because of the lee created by the island, and I cruised along the eastern and southern shore of the lake in much smoother water.

As I was finishing my cruise, a Cadillac SUV pulling a nice boat entered the access area, and two older gents got ready to go fishing. I had to wait for them to finish at the dock, so I continued west around the southern end of the lake. Ready to harness the wind, I took out my big golf umbrella and sailed back down the lake along the southern shore. There was a great tail wind, so I just hung onto the umbrella and went “flying” back, creating a nice wake while steering with my foot-operated rudder. There was an element of “showing off” to the fishermen as I raced past them.

So, this was a good cruise. I really prefer calmer waters so that I can concentrate upon the landscape and search for wildlife, but there is also exhilaration in moving through the waves and wind.

My hands were actually cold today, even with the muscle movement involved in paddling. The signs of a change in seasons are apparent. Fall is approaching, and fall in South Dakota is really the beginning of winter.


As always, if you are interested in earlier narratives of visits to Beaver Lake, please check the index on the right side of the page under the name of the lake.